My answer is that I fed my family of 6, including 4 teenage boys, on a budget of $130-150 per week for years. We were focused on saving as much money as we could, given the looming costs of college and the bills we had to pay.

​But even now, with only my husband and me at home, and our financial situation much more financially secure and comfortable than it was with four children in the household, I never spend more than around $30-$35 per person, and often less.

And that's including some indulgences that we never would have allowed ourselves in earlier days.​

Me, doing one of the things I love most - hiking, here in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador.

The Author

Hi, I'm Nancy Maje Gillis, and I hope to help you find ways to live more cheaply and mindfully so that you have less stress and more money to spend where it will make a difference in your life. I know a thing or two about living a full life on a budget because I've been doing it for a long time, first growing up in a family of 11, then as a grad student and young, married, working woman, and more recently while running my busy household and raising my 4 sons through debt-free college degrees and into independent adulthood. All while saving for our own retirement. Here I share ideas for keeping life sane, affordable, and fulfilling.